“Aye, of course.”
“Ye didnae need to go to so much effort.”
“To feed my wife?” he replied, cocking an eyebrow. “Dinnae make me second-guess myself, Ailsa. Eat.”
He lifted the tray from the table and carried it over to her, laying it on the bed before her and planting himself at the other side.
She cast her gaze over the food before her; it might have been simple at a glance, but to her, it was worthy of any royal feast. She reached out to grab a slice of apple, popping it into her mouth, the tart sweetness spreading over her tongue.
“Thank ye,” she told him softly.
She was still getting used to this side of him, the side of him that treated her as an actual wife.
He reached for a piece of bread, tearing it off and taking a bite, and for a moment, the two of them sat there on the bed in companionable silence as they began to take their food.
“Won’t the men be expecting ye in the courtyard?” she asked carefully.
She didn’t want to make it seem like she would rather have been rid of him, but the last thing she needed was for people to think that she was going out of her way to distract him from his duties.
He shook his head.
“Ewan is capable of managing them for today,” he replied. “Unless ye’d rather take breakfast alone.”
“That’s not what I said, Tavish,” she pointed out gently.
He flicked his gaze to meet hers once more, and this time, a small smile warmed his face.
“Good. Because there’s far too much here for ye to manage all on yer own.”
“Oh, I wouldnae be so sure about that,” she joked. “I’ve quite an appetite, especially after…”
She raised her eyebrows playfully, harking back to what they had shared when they had come back to this room the night before.
He chuckled, but she could still see something weighing on him, whether or not he was ready to admit it.
As they ate, she observed him, studying him with great interest. Sometimes, it was hard for her to make sense of the fact that a man like him could be her husband. In some ways, she felt as though she didn’t deserve him, especially not after the way Riona had tried to stake her claim on him the way she had.
But, as he lifted his gaze to meet hers, he eyed her with some confusion.
“What is it?”
“Ye could have told me about it, ye know.”
His face hardly moved, not certain what to make of her words.
“Told ye about what?”
“About how you felt,” she replied, trying her best to find the proper words to explain so that it would not scare him off entirely. “About hiding yersel’ from me. Worrying that I wouldnae be able to handle the worst of ye…”
He glanced away from her.
“I’m still no’ sure ye should have to.”
She reached out to take his hand, squeezing it tight, a silent promise that she had no intention of going anywhere.
“Listen to me,” she told him firmly. “I’m yer wife. And I want… I want every part of ye. I did not agree to this marriage because I wanted things to be easy, and neither did ye, am I right?”
He smirked slightly.
